Editor: In response to the letter to the editor by Scott Hurban published in Saturday’s Tracy Press, the fact that the average warming factor over the first 20,000 feet of the troposphere was less than half that at the surface seems irrelevant given the fact that most of us live at the surface. It would seem that common sense has eluded the thought process involved in posing this argument.
The presentation of data has been construed to mitigate the perception of a very real threat. The use of the phrase ‘destruction of our economy’ seems a bit extreme given the recent projection in a study written by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern that dealing with the warming of our climate – whatever the cause, will equate to a cost 1% of GDP world-wide. While that is no small number, I guess we’ll just have to work a little harder to breathe easier.
If the 30-year cycles of warming and cooling are real, things ought to start cooling down in the next few years if we’ve been trending upward since the 70s. If the alarmists are wrong, what is the harm in this investment? Jobs will be created, and commerce will commence, and the resulting resources could ultimately be converted for another use. If the alarmists are not wrong, we could be better prepared to avoid a calamity. It seems a no-brainer.
Daniel Wells, Tracy